New Kids On The Block
by Neale
Summary: This is the continuation of Chuck VS The Sleepers. The core characters accept new responsibilities and their children take on the world as they grow. OK. Real life has derailed this story, so everyone who voted for Donald, ye canna blame me for finishing it. ; )
1. Chapter 1

**OK, I'll preface this with the admission that Sarah Walker was the main reason I liked the show and I often didn't like how Chuck was shown to be behaving (or that he always seemed to follow the advice of the biggest idiots and sleazes on the show), but reading some of the old stories, a question has come up.**

 **The number of stories that portray Sarah as a slut (or worse) surprises me, and I really have to wonder where people got that idea from. In the series, after she met Chuck they only showed her kissing Bryce, Cole and Shaw briefly outside of missions and Cole on a mission, and there wasn't any indication at all that it might have gone beyond that with anyone but Shaw. Even there I had the impression that IF it ever went beyond that it would have been reluctant on her part as she was still clearly stuck on Chuck. She never showed anything like the passion she did with Chuck with any of them, and normally showed remorse afterwards.**

 **On the other hand, we were shown that Chuck slept with Jill and Hanna, and the only reason he didn't do it with Lou was that he was blocked by Sarah. As it was his make-out session with Lou went far beyond anything Sarah did with anyone else on the show. He was also going off to do something similar with Sasha Banacheck out of spite because of what he heard Sarah saying when she was trying to throw Roan off the scent and rubbed her nose in it when he was doing these things quite unfeelingly. How is it then that she's viewed as a temptress and a slut while Chuck's viewed as all that's innocent and good?**

 **This is really something I'd like to hear from people about (PM's fine if you don't want your views seen), because I don't understand it at all. It isn't even about the point I raised in Scarlet about it being wrong that women who are sexual are labelled to be 'sluts' while 'men' who act the same way are heralded as 'studs'. We were shown throughout the show that Sarah was essentially being true to Chuck and not sleeping with anyone until they got together, while he played the man whore more than a few times (an aspect of Chuck that I disliked intensely so I've removed it from my stories, along with their clumsy attempts to create angst). The only woman that he DID turn down was Carina and IMHO that was more because she was too close to Sarah than a moral call. So people, why do so many view them in the opposite roles? Was this just based on the words they said, when everything that they did in the show showed otherwise, or was it something else?**

 **The times, they are a changing. This is mostly fluff, setting up where the story is heading, but it has some dark patches.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess story.**

Washington – February 2013

With Casey being taken away to run the Joint Staff and their 'junior' flag officers being required to take on more of a role in the on-going clean-up of the military and intelligence community, the powers that be had used everyone's fear and awe of the Special Projects Group to push Emma and Mary up to Lieutenant Generals, Anna up to Rear Admiral and Carina, Zondra and Dasha up to Major Generals to give them authority to enforce their orders in early late 2012.

Mary took over from Casey as the Director or Commander of his Operations groups when he became the Director of the Joint Staff, and Carina stepped up as her Deputy in those groups.

In late February 2013, the two year extension that the Secretary of Defense had agreed to serve finished, and he handed the role over to another old war horse when he retired. The new Secretary's views on the serious issues that they were facing and how they were dealing with them were in line with the President's, so aside from the expected hiccups of a new man finding his feet, the transition was remarkably smooth.

Working with the new Secretary of Defense wasn't quite as easy yet as working with his predecessor had been, but a few of the previous Secretaries that Diane, Mary, Emma, Ellie and Chuck had had to deal with over the previous twenty one years had been much harder to handle (Diane shuddered as she remembered dealing with Cheney), and the signs were looking good for things to settle down well enough in time.

Washington – July 2013

The team's next major shake up after Casey was appointed as the Director of the Joint Staff was in July 2013 when Diane was requested to take over as the National Security Advisor when Dennis retired. The President requested that Chuck take over as the Director of National Intelligence from her at the same time. Chuck argued a little about the change of role because he didn't want to move away from the family and the group that they'd been working with for over twenty years, but as expected he ended up bowing to the request that he serve his country. The Senate fell over themselves getting Chuck confirmed as the new DNI. This of course required a total reshuffle of the Special Projects Group.

When she was requested to take over control of the Special Projects Group, Sarah also argued against what was proposed, saying that it should be Ellie who took over from Chuck as the Director and Commander of the Special Projects Group. The President and Secretary of Defense (who had been brought in because of this element) rejected that, as they were adamant that Ellie had been earmarked for a different role that they needed her to take on.

* * *

The new Secretary of Defense had trouble getting his head around why the President of the United States would allow these people to sit in the Oval Office and ARGUE with him. They were moderately polite about it, but still, first they'd had to deal with this Admiral Carmichael.

"Mister President, we've had this discussion before, my family agreed to work with Auntie Di back in ninety two, mostly to find Sammie, and we've done our best for the country since then, but this isn't what I signed on for. We have a family of our own now and I don't want to be separated from them."

At the President's. "Chuck….", When both Chuck and the Secretary of Defense looked at him he grinned before going on. "Admiral, yes, I understand what you're saying, but your country needs you. You know better than anyone that we don't know who we can trust, and we NEED someone of your integrity and ability in control of the intelligence interests of our country."

"You can leave Auntie Di in the role Mister President, we all have the utmost faith in her."

"Yes, we do, but she's the first one to say that she doesn't know a fraction of what you do about the issues at hand, and she's better placed dealing with the political wranglings as the National Security Advisor. Politics is about the only area where she's better than you."

Diane stepped in then. "You know he's right Honey, we'll try and make it so you can work from Los Angeles as much as possible, but we NEED you to take the reins as the DNI."

When Admiral Carmichael finally agreed to do his duty, they had to go through it again with GENERAL Carmichael, because she wanted to argue that Admiral Coburn was the logical choice to take over from Admiral Carmichael. She even ignored him and the President while she had discussions with the others in some foreign language.

"No Mister President, Ellie is the one to take over from Chuck, she's been doing this as long as he has, I've only been really involved in this side of it for the last seven years!"

The President sighed, it would be much easier to explain to them WHY it had to be her that took over control of the Special Projects Group, but his new Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff insisted that it would cause too much upheaval if anything slipped out about what they needed Admiral Coburn for.

"I'm sorry Sarah, but for reasons we can't go into now we need Ellie for another role in the near future. Before you say it, we considered both your mother and mother in law, but Diane agrees with me that it's best for the group to have a recognisable face at the helm, and as she pointed out, Emma and Mary will be retiring in a few years, just like she will."

Sarah turned to Diane and addressed her in rapidfire Polish " _What's going on Auntie Di? Why won't they put Ellie in as Chuck's replacement? You know that she can do this far better than I can! I don't know a fraction of what she does in that side of things!_ "

Diane shook her head " _I don't know Honey,_ _they wouldn't tell me why either._ _I'm pretty sure that this isn't coming from the President_ _but there is something political behind it. They'll only tell me that they need Ellie for another role that ONLY she is suitable for in the not too distant future._ "

" _What about Mama and Auntie Mary? Either of them would be better suited to this than I am!_ "

" _No, what the President said is right, your reputation as Sarah Walker is only exceeded by Chuck's as Charles Carmichael, or Mowgli. The group needs to be headed by someone who the_ _se people_ _all know and respect, and that's you._ _Emma, Mary and I, w_ _e're all pushing sixty and we're getting tired because we've been at this for over forty years._ _Anyway,_ _we aren't the ones to take it forward, you are!_ _Our worlds have finally settled down, Emma has you back, I_ _really_ _have Dasha in my life and we all have our grandchildren to spoil like other people our age. We want a chance to enjoy that, surely you can understand that?_ "

" _But what about Chuck and I? We have our children to look after, doesn't that matter?_ "

" _Of course it does Honey! This won't change things much for you though, you'll still be based at home, at most you'll have a few extra meetings to attend here. I've talked to the President and we've agreed that Chuck will only_ _need to_ _spend half of his time here, morning_ _s_ _or afternoon_ _s_ _depending on when_ _his_ _meetings are. We need both of you to do this, and the President is committed to working with you to_ _ensure you_ _get what you want._ "

The President had no idea what they had discussed, but he took in Sarah's frustrated expression.

"General, Sarah, will you help us out here? Will you take over the Special Projects Group?"

Sarah looked at Chuck, her mother and Ellie, getting even more frustrated at their resigned expressions. What she saw in all of their eyes was that none of them liked this but they accepted that it was something that they had to do. The sound she made at that was halfway between a sigh and a frustrated 'huff'.

"Yes Mister President, against my better judgement I will accept the role of Commander and Director of the Special Projects Group. However, I reserve the right to resign if I find that this is effecting my family too much, I have three young children who I am responsible for!"

The President looked at Chuck and saw the steely look in his eye as he nodded emphatically to indicate that the same caveat would apply to him.

The President nodded his acceptance of their terms and formally thanked both if them for accepting the responsibilities asked of them.

* * *

Sarah took over all of Chuck's roles in the Special Projects Group, except for the Cyber groups which Anna took over. Mary took over from Sarah as Director of the Intersect Project and Anna, Lynn or Carina took over Chuck's and most of Sarah's Deputy roles. Jeff was promoted to a Navy Captain and took over Anna's Deputy roles for the groups where she became the Commander or Director. Skip was also promoted to Captain in the Navy and Gertrude, Marco, Ilsa and Vinnie were promoted to Colonels as they took on more responsibility within the group.

While Diane had been required to retire when she became the DNI, Chuck retained his rank and privileges as a full Admiral. It was documented to show that while he was being seconded into the role of the DNI for an indeterminate period, but he could return to the military at that rank if he so wished. Sarah was promoted to a full General to take over from him, so with Casey gone to his new role that took them back to one O-10, three O-9s and four O-8s in the Special Projects Group, though officially it was two O-10s and four O-9s as Chuck's and Casey's positions were still attached to the group.

Pasadena – September 2013

They'd barely had time to settle down into their new roles before the next upheaval came, as Zondra was requested to accept the role of the Director of the FBI to replace Rob Mueller when he retired in September 2013. The extra two years of service that Rob had agreed to give at the President's request in May 2011 hadn't bought them enough time to find a suitable trusted replacement to follow in his footsteps, so the President asked Zondra if she'd step up and accept the responsibility for the role and she agreed. Like Chuck, she retained the rank and privileges of a Major General. She was seconded to the role of Director of the FBI but could return at that rank if she wished at a later date.

With the Special Projects group still riding on the massive wave of support from being national heroes, not to mention saving the world a few times, the Senate pushed her confirmation through with all haste. This made Zondra the first woman in charge of the FBI, as well as its youngest ever Director.

By that stage they had six VSTLs, a dozen VSTMs and three VSTHs operational, plus Sonic, so there was always fast transport available to shuttle Zondra, Casey, Chuck and the rest of them back and forth between D.C. and L.A. when required. Zondra usually took a VSTM for her protective detail, but even more for when she had the chance to take Zander with her. This wasn't as often as she liked, because over half the time he was playing and training with the other kids at home. The fact that he started school soon after she took on the role only made it worse as he had to spend more time at home.

* * *

Zander, or Zander Vincenzo Rizzo to be formal, was named for Zondra's mother, Sandra Zappetti. (Vinnie had adopted Zondra's surname when they were married because while it wasn't much more 'real' than 'Smith', the reason for choosing it was significant to her and she was famous as the FBI's best, whereas 'Smith' had basically been a name drawn from the bucket.) The name Zondra was actually a construct made up of the 'Z' from Zappetti and her mother's given name of Sandra, using the 'on' from her own original given name of Tonya.

Zondra's origins in this world were quite possibly the most horrific of any of them. She had been a beautiful fifteen year old girl when she caught the eye of Don Garibaldi in the period that her father was working for the Garibaldi crime family. Her father had only been concerned with what happened to him, so when Don Garibaldi wanted her, her father took her to him rather than take any chance of incurring his wrath, Zondra had had no idea about what was going on. When she was delivered to him, Garibaldi grabbed her and she was brutally raped in many unimaginable ways by him before being all but beaten to death because she defied him and fought against him.

Afterwards she had been dumped on their doorstep more dead than alive and her mother rushed her to hospital to try and save her. Her mother was screaming that she'd see Garibaldi in hell for doing this to her daughter and her father went scurrying off to Garibaldi to warn him about that. That night her mother was raped, tortured and murdered by a number of men in their home while her father was reportedly out. Her mother had managed to contact the FBI before they came for her though, and they kept Zondra safe.

Once she was dragged back from death's door and regained consciousness to find out that her mother had been killed and what had been done to her before she died, Zondra agreed to testify from her hospital bed to help put Garibaldi and her father away, but Garibaldi's lawyers got them out again. When that happened, she demanded that the FBI honour the promises they had made to allow her to help bring him, her father and others like them down.

The physical damage Garibaldi did to her had been so severe that she required major cosmetic reconstruction work to her face and body, and she agreed to have her face changed in the process to ensure that no-one would be able to recognise her. As she'd lost her likeness to her mother through this, she constructed the name Zondra for herself to keep something of her mother. She also adopted her maternal grandmother's maiden name of Rizzo to sever any remaining connection to her original name of Tonya Trappoli.

Zondra was a driven woman from that point on and she excelled in every aspect of the FBI's training. She was so far ahead of everyone else that they really had no justification not to make her a full agent by the time she was eighteen. She had been instrumental in bringing down five major crime families (starting with the Garibaldi family, and she made sure that Garibaldi and her father didn't get away this time) before she was twenty, and from there she was seconded into senior roles in organised crime operations with other intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world. It was her record on those multi agency operations in the United States and around the world which had led to her being made part of the CAT Squad, and her career would have continued to sky-rocket if Graham hadn't engineered the circumstances to ensure that she was sidelined after he broke up what was left of the CAT Squad.

There was little argument from the FBI people who were serious about its goals when Zondra was appointed to replace Rob Mueller. These people they knew of Special Agent Zondra Rizzo's achievements in the field over the past eighteen years, much of which had been spent successfully planning and leading field operations. They also knew about how she'd earned her Doctor of Juridical Science from Columbia Law School while she was operating as a field operative. (That was another thing that she, Sarah and Carina shared, they'd all earned variations of Juris Doctor degrees from different universities.) Anyone and everyone who that mattered in the FBI knew that she was more qualified and respected than any other candidate, and most of these people stood behind her when she was confirmed.

* * *

While this was going on, their children were growing up together, and Emma, Mary, Stephen and Ellie were watching one development with amazement, as it was basically a replay of how Charlie and Sammie had been at this age. Carina and Leslie's daughter Katarina Leslie Mahoney, or Katie as she was usually known, was obviously the brightest of the children after Mary and Stephen's Grandchildren due to her father's brilliance. She had also inherited her mother's athleticism which was up there with just about anyone's. As such, she was almost the equivalent of Sarah and Ellie's children in most respects.

The thing was, Katie and Sammie had become inseparable, just as Charlie and Sammie had been. But for the fact that Katie's hair was red instead of blonde, it was as though they were watching Charlie and Sammie when they were little all over again. On top of that, the fact that Sarah and Carina were best friends, just as Mary and Emma had been, was enough to make this a totally surreal experience.

The children, Mary and Emma were having a great time with their 'games', just as they had when it was Ellie, Charlie and Sammie. The interesting thing for the watchers was seeing that their children (and Katie) were actually ahead of where they had been at that age. Given that they already had an advantage over their parents, just as their parents had been far and away better than their own parents, and there was a good chance that the effects of the Carmichael Intersect would improve them as well, there was little doubt that they'd surpass their parents' abilities.

Most people would have been horrified to learn that these children were taught to handle firearms before they even started school, and in fact over half of them were already reasonably proficient (some quite proficient) with .22 short pistols and rifles. In this family though, their ability to protect themselves was more important than the mores of society, and it was in their genes anyway, as they all had operatives as one or both parents. For that matter, nearly half of them were third generation operatives.

With the core Intersect team agents being taken out of the field for other duties now, they were seconding agents from the Special Projects Group's other groups into the Intersect team. Most of these agents had proven themselves time and again and this process was working quite well.

When they needed support, they brought in their Spetsnazovtsi or Shadow Security people under the guise of FBI, SAD, ATF, U.S. Marshals or whatever special operations teams and they hadn't found a scenario that they couldn't handle yet. They also brought in larger groups as SEAL or Special Forces teams a few times when a larger force was required.

Washington – late March 2014

In early 2014, they found out what the President and Secretary of Defense had planned for Ellie. What they'd been trying to cover up to avoid the expected furore was that the Director of the NSA had essentially committed political suicide by making a string of serious and rather public mistakes.

When the President and Secretary of Defense agreed that his career was reaching end of life, they'd investigated the options for his replacement and decided that the only one available who was capable and trusted enough to replace him as the Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, Director of the National Security Agency and the Chief of the Central Security Service was United States Navy Admiral Eleanor Clara Coburn (a promotion to a full Admiral was part and parcel of that appointment). After considering it for a short time, Ellie accepted the appointment.

Ellie's appointment to take over the NSA, CSS and CYBERCOM necessitated yet another reshuffle of the Special Projects Group. This time Emma took over control of all of Ellie's groups, and Anna or Lynn took over her Deputy roles in most of the groups. This meant that Emma now had control of most of the Analysis and Information Dominance groups while Mary controlled most of the Intelligence and Operations groups. Anna controlled the Cyber groups and Sarah had everything else. With Ellie gone, the Special Projects Group's command group now stood at one O-10, two O-9s and three O-8s (officially three O-10s as Ellie's O-9 had been modified with her promotion, three O-9s and four O-8s).

Washington – August 2014

The changes to the Special Projects Group were coming thick and fast, as it was only a few months more before the next change for the group. In July, Chuck called the senior members of the group to Washington for another meeting with the President. This one was a very similar scenario to Ellie's appointment, as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency had to go too.

The problem came down to what the President had said to Chuck. Even with the purges that had been done, they now knew that they couldn't guarantee that anyone was clean and the President and Secretary of Defense had no confidence in any of the candidates who had been proposed, so they were asking Dasha to accept the role as the Director of the DIA. Dasha was overwhelmed, but with encouragement from the National Security Advisor (her mother), the DNI (Chuck) and the Director of the NSA (Ellie), she accepted the role.

After the repeated rounds of purges, the politicians were afraid of what the Special Projects Group could do (they were commonly referred to as the President's Pit Bulls behind their backs), so when the President proposed Major General Fiona Daria Rodya as the new Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, her promotion to Lieutenant General and appointment to the role were confirmed in August without question or delay, with that the Special Project Group's command was reduced to one O-10, two O-9s and two O-8s, officially four O-10s as Casey's O-9 had been modified with his promotion, three O-9s as Dasha's O-8 had been revised with her's, and three O-8s).

There was another transfer and promotion to be processed at the same time though, as Casey had identified and vetted his replacement as the Director of Joint Staff, so he was getting out of that role. While he'd been looking to return to the Special Projects Group though, the President and the Secretary of Defense had other ideas. The Commander of the United States Special Operations Command had had his retirement approved in June, and they had been very impressed with what Casey had done with the Joint Staff, so they asked him to accept the SOCOM Commander's role.

Given that Special Operations was the area that Casey was happiest in, it didn't take him long to accept the role with Ellie's agreement, and his promotion to a full General and appointment to the role of the Commander of the United States Special Operations Command was confirmed by the Senate when they confirmed Dasha's promotion and appointment.

When Chuck assumed the role of the DNI, they'd brought Sonic back from the Island to house it at a secure airstrip near Pasadena, because they sometimes had emergencies where the forty to forty five minutes that it could save in getting to the White House could make all the difference. Carmichael Industries leased a hanger at Ronald Reagan Airport that was nominally used for its G550 and kept a VTL, some of the Spetsnazovtsi as guards and staff to refuel and maintain their aircraft there.

When Casey accepted the SOCOM Commander's role, they started building a second one, because he was based at MacDill AFB down in Florida, so it could take forty minutes off the flight time between Los Angeles and Tampa. Of course, Leslie being Leslie, this one got Shadow the Hedgehog on its tail surfaces and was called Shadow.

* * *

As with the rest of their ceremonies, the promotion and induction ceremonies were held in the Oval Office with a small but distinguished group. Some wondered why the Deputy Director of the NSA was present, but there was no doubt who the older woman wearing her dead husband's ribbons was, as General Coburn asked leave to comfort his mother when she burst into tears because his father couldn't be here to see this. No-one questioned it when the Director of the NSA went to stand with her arm around the woman as he went back to the ceremony, as everyone knew that Admiral Coburn was his wife, but they did wonder about that young female Marine Captain who stood on her other side holding her hand.

Those who heard the President greeting the older woman got some answers, but rather a shock at hearing his words. "Mrs Coburn, it's so good to see you again! You must be proud of your Johnny Boy here, he's one hell of a Marine, just as his father was I can see." He waved to the ribbons she was wearing which showed that Alex Coburn Senior had been awarded the Silver Star twice among other medals, then he gave a laugh. "The way your family is, I expect that you'll be seeing your Granddaughter as a General too, maybe both of them. Clara will most likely have at least twenty five years before she gets there, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Alex make it within ten years."

Johanna laughed at that as she looked over at Alex. "I think that you might just have something there Mister President."

Ellie piped up then. "Well Alex may become a General, but Clara is going to be an Admiral, just like Mommy, aren't you Sweetie?"

Clara nodded emphatically. "Yep, I'm going to be an Admiral!" They all burst out laughing at that, she was just adorable.

The questions about the Deputy Director of the NSA increased once the ceremonies were finished, because Lieutenant General Rodya went straight to him and the National Security Advisor, General Beckman, and the kissing and hugging that was going on said that there was a story there. People in these circles liked to keep secrets, but it was entirely different when people were keeping secrets from THEM.

For all the intrigue about General Rodya and her connection to Montgomery and Beckman though, it was the children who held the most attention, her's in particular. The little boy who was with them was obviously her son, but who was the father? There was nothing on her file about a partner. Some noted a distinct similarity between him and Samuel Carmichael, but dismissed that as General Carmichael was obviously too friendly with General Rodya for her to have had her husband's child.

Most of those present knew that these children were not yet four, and their physical size bore that out, but they carried themselves, interacted and behaved as if they were at least twice that age, rather more at times. None displayed this more than the three Carmichael children, the enchanting twin girls and their charming brother, though that Katie Mahoney girl who always seemed to be with them and their cousin Clara Coburn seemed to be their match. It was unnerving for most to watch and talk to these miniature adults, all the more so when they changed languages without a pause to match whoever they were talking to, and understood things that many adults didn't.

Washington - February 2015

It wasn't just the Special Projects Group that kept changing, because at the start of 2015 they had another new Secretary of Defense to get used to. This one was less of an unknown quantity though, as they'd dealt with him back in the Clinton administration, and again in the current administration. He wasn't an old war horse like the previous two, but he knew his business.

Pasadenda – April 2015

While Casey, Chuck, Ellie, Zondra and Dasha didn't like being away from their family for work, the President ensured that he delivered on what Diane had promised them, and they spent at least half of their time working from their offices in the Castle. This was working fairly well for them, so Carina didn't have trouble accepting the call when she was offered the role of the DEA Administrator in April 2015 on the same basis as Chuck and Zondra. She was seconded into the role, so she retained the rank and privileges of a Major General and could come back at that rank if she so chose.

It was actually a little easier for Carina, as Katie was already in school and forging ahead with Sammie and the others when she had to start working away from home, so it wasn't as hard for her to wrest herself away from her child as it had been for the others.

Carina's secondment meant that the group's command was further reduced to one O-10, two O-9s and one O-8, less than half of what it had been back when Casey was seconded into the Director of Joint Staff role (though officially it was four O-10s, three O-9s, and three O-8s).

She started cleaning up the DEA as soon as she took over, using the resources of the Special Projects Group to root out the ones who were turned, or on someone's payroll, and changing the practices away from taking the men's easy out and sending the female agents in to sleep with the ones they were going after. The fact that they found plenty of evidence against those who argued hardest against changing 'tried and true procedures' made it easier for Carina to get rid of them. She would have done the purge anyway and quite possibly would have gotten more personal satisfaction that way, but this way it was all above board and official. The fact that the DEA's results kept improving while she was cleaning out the rot didn't hurt her at all.

* * *

Hardly anyone in government had missed the fact that the President had just about the entire America intelligence community under the control of people from his 'big stick', the Special Projects Group. As it stood, the National Security Advisor, Director of National Intelligence, Director of the FBI, the Director of the NSA, the Director of the DIA and the DEA Administrator had all been part of that group, as had the Commander of Special Operations Command. For that matter, they knew that the Director of the CIA and the Deputy Director of the NSA were also closely connected to the group.

The problem that those who wanted to argue with this had was that in the aftermath of the Ring, Volkoff and the other purges that the group had been instrumental in around the world, a global policy of transparency had been adopted between intelligence communities. They weren't sharing their secrets, that would never happen, but their peers around the world had visibility of the processes used in each agency, because that could be used to identify corruption taking hold again.

Under that transparency, the intelligence communities around the world could see the American agencies' effectiveness and achievements increasing as they cleared out the corruption that had been rampant before. Global cooperation on issues that extended across borders increased all intelligence and law enforcement agencies' effectiveness. That was the reason that the other side wasn't brave enough to accuse the President of Cronyism, because the results were ample proof of the validity of the choices that had been made.

Washington – August 2015

With the end of the President's second term coming up, Diane and Chuck were involved in discussions with the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, and other significant Republican and Democrat representatives about how they could ensure that the current safeguards on the integrity of the Government, Military and Intelligence community would continue at their current levels of effectiveness under the next administration. Chuck had argued against his inclusion in these meetings and reaffirmed his position in the first meeting, but he was voted down on that.

All present agreed that it was in the interests of the American nation to retain Chuck and the others in positions where they had the authority to maintain the current levels of integrity controls. To do this, they created a framework for an oversight committee which could not be subverted by subsequent administrations from either the Republican or Democrat camps. This oversight committee would have control over the appointment and dismissal of people in the agreed key watchdog positions that they needed to maintain as independent from the control of the current administration and the parameters of those positions. Part of the structure agreed stipulated controls over how members of the oversight committee itself may be added or removed as well.

To ensure the integrity controls on an on-going basis, it was agreed to expand the powers of the Director of National Intelligence (expanding the Director's control over all members of the Intelligence Community and removing any restrictions on how long they could serve as the Director) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (giving the Chairman a senior role in the Operational Command structure and removing any restrictions on how long they could serve as the Chairman).

As part of this process, the members of what was to be the bipartisan Integrity Oversight Committee agreed that they wanted Casey to take on the revised Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff role, and Chuck to remain as the revised Director of National Security. With Casey's and Chuck's reserved agreement, the politicians went off to get senate confirmation of the establishment of the oversight committee, the revised Chairman and Director's roles and Casey's appointment to the Chairman's role.

While there was some argument from those who saw how this could hobble their plans in the future, they couldn't find any valid grounds to withhold agreement without revealing their true motivations, and all the proposed measures were signed off by late September. Casey had his induction as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the new parameters on the 1st of October 2015.

Washington – May 2016

When the Presidential candidates for the two parties had been confirmed, the members of the bipartisan Integrity Oversight Committee were glad to have locked in the agreed controls when they did. The reason for their relief was based on the fact that they weren't sure that one could defy pressure to implement changes that the party and its supporters wanted, or that the other wouldn't attempt to rule with an iron fist to force what they wanted through.

Washington – November 2016

They did breath a sigh of relief when Hillary was elected as the second President Clinton, as they'd been worried what Donald might try to do if he got into power. Of course, Hillary hadn't done herself any favours using external commercial email servers to send emails containing classified information.

That stupid move had almost cost her the election but luckily for her, most of the voters hadn't realised just how stupid her actions there were and they were more worried about how heavy handed Donald would be. The cartoons depicting Godzilla with a comb over trampling through New York etc that were going around did nothing at all to alleviate the people's concerns.

Washington – January 2017

Sarah was a little worried when Auntie Di, Ellie and Casey all insisted that she to be present, in uniform and with the children, the day that Chuck was officially introduced to the new President, but she trusted their advice and made sure that she and their little terrors were on hand.

Ellie was also there with Clara that day, and she quietly explained the warnings. It came down to the fact that the President's daughter was going to be there and like the Bush twins, she had had her eye on Chuck back in the late nineties. She had also had more of a connection with him as she'd known him at Stanford as well as seeing him in Washington. She was married with children herself now, but they'd thought it may still be a good idea to remind her that Chuck was a family man.

As it turned out though, it was her own husband who got jealous when she threw her arms around Chuck and kissed him, because when she immediately turned to Sarah and did the same to her it was obvious she was just being friendly. Stepping back, she took a good look at Sarah, taking in her rank and medal ribbons and nodded. "Yeah, I can see how you landed him when no-one else could but…." She turned to Chuck. "What happened with Jill, Chuck? You two seemed solid back at Stanford?"

Chuck looked embarrassed. "Jill left after we graduated. She wanted something different from her life."

It was obvious that it was a touchy subject, so they quickly moved on to a safer one, meeting each other's children. The President and her daughter were absolutely enchanted with Lottie, Charlie and Sammie and Chuck and Sarah thought that Chelsea's children were sweet.

 **A/N: Yes, I realise that this ALTERNATE UNIVERSE version of what's happening in 2016 may be sailing a little closer to our universe at the moment, but it's still definitely AU. For those who want to think of this as 'real life' despite all reminders that it ain't and who want to jump up and down claiming that it's biased towards the current President in our universe, no. Yes, it may paint him in a better light than many (including me) may view him in real life, but it you'd care to go back to Chapter 6 of Chuck VS The Sleepers, you'll see that the previous President was generally treated better than I personally believe he deserved to be if it was in 'our' universe too. I guess I wanted to show both sides more as I'd like to see them then they are in 'our' universe.  
**

 **NB: NO, I don't reserve that view for American politicians, it applies to all politicians IMO, they lie, betray us and use us for their own benefit, all while we're paying for them to live the high life that most of us never have a chance to. When something goes wrong, though, they're immune from punishment. NO care and NO responsibility is their motto. 'Trust me, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you?' HELL NO!**

 **Still haven't locked in which way to go with this. If it bombs, I'll probably just append it as an epilogue to Chuck VS The Sleepers and then delete this story altogether. If I get an indication that people are interested enough to follow the yellow brick road though, I'm thinking of trying to take it through another fifteen to twenty years to where the kids are starting to stand on their own two feet in the world that they've inherited.**


	2. Watchdogs

**One last shot and then I give up.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess story.**

Crystal City – October 2015

One thing that happened as soon as they accepted the President's watchdog roles was that Chuck and Casey had targets painted on their backs, so they had to increase their security presence in Washington. Since Chuck had accepted the DNI's role, they'd maintained some security (Spetsnazovtsi) and maintenance staff at the Carmichael hangar at RR Airport, but their two to four man protective details had normally came and gone with them.

Initially Casey had been flying the VSTL in and landing on the roof of the Pentagon, and the protective detail who went with him would normally stay with the aircraft while he was in the office. As Chuck, and then Zondra, Ellie, Dasha and Carina were added to the team working in Washington though, they needed more support, so they leased the hangar. That way their aircraft could be refueled and maintained in Washington and they had extra security who could be on-site quickly with the VTL that they kept there. They also kept up appearances better by arriving by car at the government facilities.

So far they had been putting the people stationed at the Carmichael hangar up at the nearby hotels, as with the rotating security details they didn't need that many rooms, but in the new scenario that wouldn't be viable any more. That was why they started looking for a suitable building in Crystal City to buy and renovate.

As usual, a quick and easy sale reduced the price, and they had possession of the building and started renovations inside two months. Chuck had initially been looking for a smaller building, but when he stopped to think about it, with most of the core group working here now and the need for a bigger security force to cater for the increased threat profile, it made sense for them to be based here most of the time. Therefore he started looking for a building that could cater for over a hundred families living and working there.

Once again, Uncle Roan requested their leave to design it to fit the image that they wanted to project. This time the active security was designed into it from the start so it blended in better, and the Carmichaels shared the Penthouse level with the Coburns, Emma, Mary and Stephen. The next floor down had Anna and Dasha and their kids, the Mahoneys, the Rizzos, Sydney, Lynn and Syd, and Diane and Roan (with the rest of the family in Washington, it made more sense and was better for them to be with them) in similarly lavish apartments. The rest of the Carmichael Industries and Shadow Security team were on the floors under them, then the Spetsnazovtsi and technology people and their families.

The ground floor was offices for Carmichael Industries, Fox Information Consulting, Novatech, Shadow Security and the Special Projects Group (including offices for those who were currently allocated to other roles), and they had three levels below the ground, set up much like the Dungeon. They still had a roof garden and pool, but it was a little smaller than El Castillo's.

They didn't have much trouble getting all of the kids into the Sidwell Friends School with the President's support. The prestige of the Carmichael name and the fact that there were eleven flag officers between the parents and grandmothers didn't hurt either.

Overall, this was better for everyone, they didn't have to commute to Washington, the kids were in a secure, private school where they were protected better than they had been in L.A. and they had more time to be with them. Some of their people stayed behind in L.A. and the others kept their apartments and offices as they were. This made it easy to fly back out if they had business to address or social events to attend.

The Carmichaels' penthouse apartment in Carmichael House in Crystal City wasn't as lavish as the Keep, as Roan had separated the formal entertainment facilities and moved them up to the roof. This way when functions were put on, they didn't need to let people into their home. With the kids being five going on sixteen now, he did away with the nursery/kids' room and designed it with individual rooms for them, though there were adjoining doors between all of them and the master bedroom so they weren't separated. It was still quite good for entertaining, but it was more informal and comfortable for them.

To keep up appearances, each of them who had an external government job was normally escorted by a protective detail of six to twelve in three or four vehicles, and the same applied to getting the kids to and from school. Ellie and Roan had the longest commute up to Fort Meade, but as Chuck's office was over the river from where the kids' school was, when he could make the time he went via the school in Bethesda to drop them off before swinging back across the river to Liberty Crossing, which made his commute take almost as long.

Liberty Crossing – October 2015

Chuck started his revised role as the DNI in October 2015, and he found it rather aggravating that after being in the DNI's position for over two years, there were still people (usually military or ex-military) who came into his office and insisted on going on about what a disgrace it was that he was displaying the two flags that he was entitled to, as they refused to accept that he was.

The thing was, he also had pictures from the more significant award presentations up on the walls of his office, so the proof was there to see if they chose to look. His ribbon board, shoulder board and his command ashore, qualification and identification badges were also mounted in a picture frame on his desk, but visitors rarely saw that as it was facing him, along with his wedding and family pictures.

His patience had ran out with these people within a few months of starting as the DNI without his temper cooling at all, so he'd developed a process to deal with them that satisfied him, but not them usually. His first call was generally to their Combatant Commander or Director. If he couldn't get an answer or he wasn't satisfied with the answer, his second call was to the Secretary of Defense. If he couldn't reach the Secretary of Defense his third call was to the President's private line. If he couldn't reach the President, things tended to get rather bad for the person who was pissing him off.

The Combatant Commander or Secretary of Defense generally got someone there to remove the idiots from his office before things got to that point though, as they'd taken measures to ensure that they always had Military Police on site in the ODNI offices since he put the first ones in hospital.

Liberty Crossing – February 2016

The most difficult of those ones he had in his office was the Secretary of Homeland Security, because he couldn't deal with him the way that he desperately wanted to. After listening to the man rant at him for over ten minutes, Chuck called the President's private line and began speaking in Indonesian when he answered. _"Barry, it's Chuck."_ As Chuck had never addressed him with that sort of familiarity before, or spoken Indonesian for that matter, the President knew that something was seriously awry here. _"Hey Chuck, what's up?"_

" _Do you remember the agreement we had whereby I could resign from this role if it became more trouble than it's worth?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Well I think that time has come."_

" _Wait. Wait, tell me what's wrong first and maybe we can fix it!"_

" _Well I have your Secretary of Homeland Security in my office and he's telling me that Homeland Security will not relinquish any control of the Intelligence elements of the department to me. Oh, and he's also telling me that he will ensure that I am prosecuted to the full extent of the law for the unlawful display of the flags that I have up in my office."_

" _WHAT? What the hell is he even doing in your office?"_

" _He just barged in and told me that I had to justify the executive order giving me control over all elements of the American Intelligence Community before he would even consider giving me any access to them."_

" _Shit! Can you put me on speaker? No, can you set up a video conference so I can see for myself that he gets the point?"_

" _Yes sir. Just a moment…. There it is!"_

With that, the eighty inch flat screen on the wall lit up with the President's image and he barked.

"What are you doing in Admiral Carmichael's office Johnson?"

"Mister President!… What? Admiral Carmichael? You mean that that's real?"

"Yes Johnson, it's real! As you would have seen if you'd bothered to look, I awarded it to him myself! And President Bush was the one who awarded him for the other part of what you're threatening to have him prosecuted over!"

"But Sir, how can that be? I've never heard of Carmichael before we got that order saying that he had control over our intelligence groups."

"Well obviously you haven't been in the loop on intelligence matters then, because Admiral Carmichael has been the DNI since before you were made the Secretary of Homeland Security, and he's been a major player in our intelligence community for well over twenty years now. As for why his rank and medals haven't been advertised, if you saw his medals and had any idea about what you were looking at, you might have recognised among them the Special Operations Command Medal, Distinguished Intelligence Cross, National Intelligence Cross, National Security Medal and National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. We don't advertise our top people in those fields because it would get them killed! You shouldn't know about them now but rightfully displaying his flags and pictures is the Admiral's minor rebellion within the privacy of his own office because we took him out of the field against his wishes to do a job that no-one else could."

"Now! What's this I hear about refusing to relinquish oversight and control of your intelligence groups to the Director of National Intelligence, as per the Executive order you received?"

"That. That's not exactly correct Mister President..."

"Admiral. Please repeat what Mr Johnson said to you."

Chuck repeated the diatribe that he'd been on the receiving end of, and which he'd just given the President the gist of, word for word.

"Thank you Admiral….Johnson, if you want to try and claim you haven't said something, you should make sure that the person you were speaking to doesn't have an eidetic memory."

"Now, from what the Admiral just repeated to me, you have wilfully disobeyed an executive order from your Commander In Chief, which would be me, by refusing to relinquish control of the intelligence groups in your department to the government's person in charge of all intelligence matters, which is the Admiral. You have five minutes to explain yourself and convince me why I shouldn't dismiss you on the spot! Talk!"

Johnson was still going fifteen minutes later when Chuck got a text from Sarah to say that she was waiting outside with the kids. He forwarded it to the President, giving him a look so he'd check it.

The President read the text and looked at him, nodding at the door as he cut Johnson off. "I haven't yet heard your assurances that you'll be giving the Admiral full cooperation and access to the intelligence resources in your Department Johnson. Will you be complying in full with the lawful executive order you received, or will your Deputy be elevated to Secretary by the end of the day?"

Johnson was almost wetting himself "Oh no sir! I can assure you that the Admiral will get everything he needs from my department straight away!"

At that moment the door of Chuck's office opened and three pint sized terrors ran straight past the man standing with his mouth wide open to their father (Johnson had no idea that Sarah had told them to do exactly that after she got the text from Chuck).

The President barked at him. "Johnson, I expect to hear that the Admiral has received formal confirmation that he'll get every assistance from your people by the end of the day, otherwise your Deputy will get a promotion, now get out!"

As Johnson turned for the door, his jaw dropped again when he saw Sarah, as she'd made a special effort to look nice for Chuck because this new job function was running him ragged. The President barked at him again. "Do you have a death wish? The Admiral was decorated for his operations with the SEALs, Delta Force and the CIA's SOG as well as Israel's toughest special operations groups before he was out of his teens and you're gawking at his wife in his office? Get the hell out of there you fool!"

He only just managed to hold on until the door closed behind the man before he burst out laughing.

Sarah grinned at him. "That was cruel Mister President, and might I say a little sexist? I'm quite capable of killing him myself!"

"Oh, I know that quite well Sarah, but we'd already covered off the fact that the medals that Chuck has are quite real. That was part of Chuck's beef with him, as he was trying to threaten to prosecute Chuck for unlawfully displaying his flags..."

Sarah cut him off. "WHAT? Oh I am going to kill him!"

The President put his hands out to placate her. "Calm down Sarah, we've addressed that, and he's scurrying back to his office to make sure that all of his people cooperate fully with Chuck on any intelligence matters. According to what a lot of people have told me, including Bob Gates though, he's actually supposed to be one of the good ones, that's why I appointed him. I think we've scared him enough to toe the line now. If not, well we can quietly let him know that General Carmichael is even more dangerous than her husband, and maybe you can have some fun."

"With that I'll leave you good folk in peace. Don't forget that there are two young ladies who want a dance with you at the ball tomorrow night Chuck. Bye kids."

The Carmichael terrors chorused "Goodbye Mister President!" and he grinned as Chuck cut the link.

Chuck hugged and kissed the kids and then pulled Sarah down for a kiss.

With the important things out of the way, he threw the things he had to work on at home in his bag and they headed out. Chuck took the time of the drive back to Carmichael to talk to the kids and ask what they'd done that day, as he knew that he'd be working most of the night, especially with the ball tomorrow night that the President had just reminded them about.

When he asked Sarah whether their outfits were ready for the ball though she just gave him one of her 'are you really asking me that?' looks.

He smiled as he leaned in to kiss her. "OK, OK, I knew you'd have it ready but I had to ask. I'm getting buried under the extra work that's coming out of the changes they made."

Chuck sighed. "At least it should mean that Ellie, Zondra, Carina and Dasha can come back as soon as they get suitable replacements ready though, as we'll have enough visibility into each of the agencies to see when something's going bad."

Sarah nodded. "That's good, because Mama and Auntie Mary are getting more and more serious about retiring. If they do, Ellie could take her side back from Mama and I should be able to take Auntie Mary's groups off her if I farm a few out to the others."

Chuck just nodded and pulled her into him, tuning out what she was saying as he didn't want to think about work at the moment.

* * *

The next day, once they had all the formal confirmations from Homeland Security they set up the raw feeds so that Chuck could review what came through them. This was one of the primary ways that they could provide the watchdog function, as they would review everything from these feeds with the intersect and compared the results with what was being reported by the agency. If there was a discrepancy, the individual and then the agency would be investigated.

Chuck was just thankful that the whole team was using the Carmichael Intersect now, rather than it being just him using the CIA/NSA Intersect as the few who officially knew about the intersect believed. If it were just him under those conditions the workload and constant flashing would have wiped him out and/or driven him crazy.

As it was though, they had several people reviewing every part of the feeds. This served to both spread the workload, and have their differing perspectives and knowledge bases improve the probability of picking something up. They did the same on Casey's side with military information and activity, if the orders didn't match the information, they investigated the individual and the unit. What most didn't know was that they were also doing the same with government information and activity.

That was why the President was doing everything he could to take the load off Chuck and make things easier for him. He genuinely liked and respected this young man, but he was just waiting for the day that the strain of going through every piece of government, intelligence and military information inevitably overwhelmed him. So any way that he could reduce the strain on him, like bringing a little humour into the situation or dismissing a government official who was making things difficult for him, he'd do it.

* * *

That night at the ball, they were having a good time, especially Sarah and Ellie as they ribbed Chuck and Casey about behaving themselves when they were dancing with the President's daughters. Casey had been determined to get back at Chuck for the President's daughters calling him 'Uncle Sugar Bear' until Sarah told him that it had been her, not Chuck. The girls had been intimidated by him (like most people), so she told them to call him that to soften their fear of him and let them see the man that she and the family knew and loved.

The fun stopped when Chuck, and then the others, got a flash on an assassin at the ball after he'd noted his suspicious behaviour. Once they'd identified him, they looked for others and found them, another half a dozen in fact. They notified the First Family's protective detail, but at the President's orders they shielded them in the ballroom rather than removing them to prevent a panic.

As they observed the assassins, it became clear that it was them, rather than the President, who was their target here. While it worried Sarah that they were almost certainly after Chuck, she chuckled evilly when she catalogued what they had available to deal with them. Chuck looked a question at her and she leant in to whisper in his ear. "It hardly seems fair, does it?"

His expression clouded with confusion for a moment before it cleared and he grinned as he got her point. Of the dozen of them who were attending the ball, only Leslie wasn't an operative and from the way Carina's arm was inside the back of his jacket, he was obviously carrying weapons for her, just as Chuck was for Sarah and the other guys probably were for their partners as well.

As he leant in to give her a quick kiss, he ran through what they had to work with, just as Sarah had already done. There were the two of them, Ellie and Casey, Carina with whatever Leslie was carrying for her, Zondra and Vinnie, and Dasha and Anna had come with Yuri and Rob as their partners for the night. They also had another dozen Shadow Security people salted through the staff. All of them except for Leslie were armed and extremely dangerous.

It wasn't too difficult for them to quietly extract the assassins from the ball without disturbing proceedings, and they sent the others back in while Chuck waited for Sarah to get confirmation that there weren't any other assassins at the ball. The response she got was negative, but most of them hadn't known about the others who were there either, so that wasn't too reassuring.

They went back in for a while and then begged off and went home to see what Mary had extracted from the would be assassins. Chuck shook his head as he thought that grandmothers were generally noted for their ability to bake or host a reception, not for the fact that they could break just about anyone alive and get their secrets out of them. Mary extracted the details of how and what each of them had been engaged for on this hit and handed the information over to Chuck and the others to follow up. Just as she could get whatever she needed out of a human better than anyone else they knew of, no-one else could work their magic on computers the way her baby boy, the Piranha, could.

* * *

There weren't any great surprises when they found who had sponsored the hits. Unfortunately, most of them were too prominent to respond in kind, so Chuck and the others had to settle for sending them a message. The ones who had sent payments to the assassins went from being smug rich bastards to totally penniless and terrified overnight. What they took off them wasn't much in the scale of what the family had taken off the ones that they'd taken down in the last fifteen years or so, but it was enough to destroy some of those who tried to have Chuck killed.

Wiping out the ones who had financed the planned hit at the ball stopped them being a threat, but didn't stop the ones who were really behind it. Over the next eight months there were over two dozen other attempts to get rid of Chuck. About half of these he dealt with himself, taking out his would be assassins with guns, knives or his bare hands, while his protective details took care of the rest.

It took the other side a surprisingly long time to work out that their vehicles were armoured and give up on trying to get him by attacking the vehicle Chuck was travelling in. Presumably this was because the ones they sent didn't have a chance to report their failure before they were killed or captured themselves.

After a few months had passed and almost a dozen more attempts had occurred, Sarah, Mary and Casey decided that enough time had passed to prevent connections being made between the ones who'd financed the hit at the ball and the attempts on Chuck's life, so they brought them in for a 'talk'. By the time they'd shown up dead by accident or suicide, the family were following up what Mary had gotten out of them.

Unfortunately, the ones who were behind the order were a lot brighter than the ones they'd delegated to finance it. Aside from the few who were too powerful to go after openly and who had a clean enough public image to hold up to most investigations, they disappeared. Their attempts to get Chuck continued, but slowed as the family got closer to them through the intel they got out of the would be assassins they captured at each attempt.

After seven months they had a breakthrough though, as they managed to locate one of the ones who had gone into hiding and through him, tracked down the others in hiding. Mary extracted enough information from them to let the family break the back of their organisation and strip away just about all of their assets.

Washington – October 2016

The final step to stop them going after Chuck was when Mary visited each of the 'untouchables' in what were supposed to be their impregnable sanctuaries and told them what had been done to their organisation. She also told them what specific information about them would be supplied to the media around the world to start investigations into them and their nefarious dealings if the attempts on the Human Intersect's life didn't stop immediately.

Her parting shot after telling them that if the attempts on his life didn't stop, she'd be back when they were no longer untouchable was what terrified them. "Well I will if I can convince Sarah Walker and John Casey to let me be the one who deals with you. Oh that's right, I haven't introduced myself, have I? I've used many names, but I'm probably best known as the CIA's Agent Frost, I'm told that I was quite famous as that."

All of the remaining hits on Chuck were called off within a couple of weeks of Mary making those visits, as soon as they'd found out who Agent Frost was and had confirmation that the woman who visited them matched what descriptions they had for Frost. They didn't need to ask about who Sarah Walker or John Casey were as they certainly knew THOSE names. Now that they knew who they were up against, they weren't about to risk tempting fate any more.

Crystal City – October 2016

For the past six months, as Chuck had said, those who had been seconded to head up the major intelligence agencies had been identifying and vetting suitable replacements and they returned to the Special Projects Group as soon as their replacements were confirmed.

Carina and Zondra were the first, and Zondra took over as the Director of the Intersect Project while Carina took over as the Deputy Director.

Dasha was replaced and remained as a Lieutenant General when she returned from the DIA in August, and Mary retired as a Lieutenant General with Sarah, Carina, Zondra and Dasha sharing the load of taking over her Intelligence and Operations groups.

Ellie didn't manage to locate and prepare a suitable replacement until September, and he took over in October. She remained a full Admiral when she returned to the Special Projects Group and took over as the Deputy Director and Deputy Commander. She also took over the majority of Emma's groups when she retired as a Lieutenant General. Anna and Sarah took over Emma's other groups.

Neither Mary nor Emma stopped working with the Special Projects Group or Carmichael Industries, they merely relinquished control to their children and worked for them.

With these changes, the Special Projects Group showed as having two O-10s, one O-9 and three O-8s for its control structure. Officially it was four O-10s because Chuck's and Casey's O-10s were still attached to the group as long as they were seconded into the DNI and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff roles.

* * *

In December 2017, just before the new administration came in, Diane and Roan also retired, having made their recommendations for suitable replacements for their roles. This meant that the four of them would now be available to make use of their vast intelligence knowledge as they took on some of the load of processing the information that they were going through about Government, Intelligence and Military developments.

With Diane and Roan's retirement, the family also cut its final ties with the GRU and SVU, because the rest of the Shadow Group had been dropped by them as useless five to ten years before. Diane and Roan had presented compelling evidence that the failures of their predecessors in the roles they held at the end had seriously curtailed the level of information that they had access to, but as long as they were in positions where they may get access to high level information their Russian 'masters' weren't about to release them. As soon as they announced that they'd retired (they were both over sixty, so that was believable) though, their 'masters' cut all communications with them.

Stephen also 'retired' when the others did, so Leslie took over Novatech, just as Ellie had taken over Fox Consulting from Emma when she retired.

Crystal City – January 2017

No-one from outside the family saw any of the older set working in the Carmichael Industries or Special Projects offices any more, but they were in fact working just as hard as they had before when they weren't chasing after or training their grandchildren, they were just freed from the time wasting requirements for constant meetings.

Sarah was grateful to them for taking on much of the general running around after the kids, because having Chuck and Casey tied up with their government jobs meant that she and Ellie had the lion's share of the responsibility for the Carmichael Industries businesses and the Special Projects Groups. Seeing the kids, and Chuck when he got back from Liberty Crossing or the White House, were the highlights of her day, but as she couldn't function without sleep the way that Chuck did, she had limited time to do what she wanted and meet those responsibilities.

Like Chuck and the other parents, Sarah wished that she had the time to take their kids to and from school so that they could have more time with them and be more a part of their lives, but each trip to the school via Liberty Crossing took over an hour and a half from home. It also added at least twenty minutes to Chuck's commute to his office, so they couldn't manage it every time, or even every day. Chuck tried to take them to school and she tried to pick them up and take them to Liberty Crossing to bring him home with them as much as they could, but they struggled to manage that more than once or twice most weeks.

* * *

They'd been struggling even more before, back when Ellie, Carina, Zondra and Dasha had been filling the government positions as well as Chuck and Casey, because it had been mainly Sarah, Emma, Mary and Anna who had to handle the majority of the ten trips a week between them because the Friends' School had strict rules on who could drop off or pick up the kids.

The three years since Casey accepted the first role in Washington had been increasingly difficult, with all of them getting snowed under with the workload from their 'official' positions and the rest of their responsibilities to CI/Special Projects, and it had only gotten worse when the kids started school.

To protect them against their enemies and unwanted attention, their kids had been enrolled as 'Bartowski' and Clara was enrolled as 'Casey', but the Bartowski name was still famous itself in the Arcadia school district because of Ellie and Chuck's achievements, so that had brought its own attention. They'd maintained the house in Arcadia as a separate base if they needed it since Mary and Emma moved into the Castle, and the argument for moving Ellie and Chuck to Arcadia for the best schools still applied when the kids were getting closer to school age, so they were registered at that address as the Bartowskis and Caseys. Chuck did his usual magic to cover up that they were using one address for seventeen children from fourteen families.

The workload and time management issues had only gotten worse when Chuck and Casey agreed to take on the watchdog roles and they'd relocated to Washington. The ones with outside jobs had more time with their kids, but the workload had gone up considerably, as had the stress. The commute to the Friends' school was three times as long, and the terms that they'd agreed to to get them in at short notice meant that only a limited number of named individuals were authorised to drop off or pick up the kids.

On top of that, with the way politics and military protocols worked, it was Sarah and Ellie who had to attend most of the meetings with the President and the government's representatives as the most senior members of the group. At least most of those meetings were held in the Pentagon or the White House, so travel time was short, but they took up a lot of time. That was why having their grandmothers 'retired' and able to cover the majority of the trips to and from the school was such a boon.

The two things that Sarah looked forward to the most each day were when the kids came home from school, and when Chuck came home from 'work', so the days when she could make the time to go to pick up the kids from school and Chuck from work were doubly good.

 **A/N: This story doesn't seem to be working for anyone. If this continues I'll probably tack these two chapters onto the end of Sleepers, delete this and give up on the story. I may try to finish the other stories if that happens, not sure at the moment.**

 **Of course, I may buckle and stretch this out to six chapters to see whether Billy Jack and the others who wait that long before they start reading pick it up. I hate it when I'm weak like that.  
**


End file.
